Tag: nonprofit

Taking a leap

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In February, a good friend of mine contacted me about a position at the organization she worked for. I wasn’t looking for a new job, but I took a quick glance. I was definitely intrigued. I cautiously started to learn more and talk with people. Almost six months later, I find myself ready to take a leap. On Monday, I’m starting as Executive Director at Reading Partners Silicon Valley.

I’m REALLY excited.

And so grateful for an incredibly supportive husband. Crazy schedule? No problem. My schedule is flexible. Life as an ED with a new baby? Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered. Freaking out about something new? Relax. You are awesome and can do it.

Here we go!

A labor of love…that time I redesigned a website

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I started at Adolescent Counseling Services in December 2007. In my interview, I remember being asked what I thought of the website, as it had been redesigned just the year before after an extremely lengthy process of working with pro-bono web designers. I lied. I said it was great. And, I got the job.

7 months later, I became Development & Marketing Director and made it a personal mission to get ACS’ website redesigned and updated. Of course, not having any clue about web design, not having money, not having anyone with the expertise, and not having the time were major barriers. When I left ACS in 2013, I was pretty disappointed that I was leaving without having realized one of my personal goals for the agency.

Good thing life sometimes gives you second chances. Shortly after I came back to ACS this year, I found out we received a transition grant (since ACS had acquired a pre-existing program) and part of the grant was earmarked to be spent on….a website redesign!!!!!!!!

To top it off, we have a newish board member who has the expertise and knows how to actually go about redesigning a website. AND, this board member volunteered to help me make this 6 year dream a reality.

We decided to use WordPress, we picked a theme, I met with staff, did a wireframe of the structure, started writing content…and then at the end of July, we locked ourselves in the conference room and weren’t coming out until there was a new website up. 

Our old website was bad. Really bad. Just take a look for yourself.

It was hard to navigate, content was everywhere, there was no good place to put updates and events, and it looked like it was straight out of the year 2000. We were losing potential clients – and probably donors – with our web presence so we decided we need to start from scratch. Since July, I’ve been writing website content, writing copy, buying photos, building pages, and doing everything I can to improve ACS’ website. 

Voila! 

Four scrolling images on the homepage:

Clean homepage that clearly states what our programs are:

And, every possible way to connect with us. Not all over the place, but in an organized fashion:

I’m incredibly proud of what I accomplished, but talk about a labor of love! It’s still a work in progress for sure, but it’s leaps and bounds better than what we had. Most importantly, I hope it’s easy for parents and teens in need to navigate and figure out what we do and who to contact. 

Also, thank God for YouTube and everyone who has posted videos or tutorials on how to do a lot of the technical things (like install widgets or calendars or blog feeds or twitter feeds or html code to nicely format text). I hope you’ll take a look and check it out. www.acs-teens.org 

Let the wild rumpus continue

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I sure started the year off with a bang. I left my job, took a leap of faith, and entered unchartered territory for me – the world of unemployment.

I wasn’t sure how long my unemployment would last. Would it be a month? Two? Hopefully not more than two…

How fortunate am I that my old position at ACS was open and that I was a invited to return? Unemployment lasted less than two weeks and I’m excited to have returned as Advancement and Marketing Director. 7 months ago I didn’t think I’d find my way back to ACS so soon (it’s true for many that you never really leave ACS), but here I am, back for the reunion tour (kudos to Kendall for that one).

The commute isn’t ideal. BUT in the last half-year, I’ve learned what is important to me in a job and in life. And I’ve decided sitting in traffic is a small price to pay for happiness.

I’m so blessed to have gotten a job so soon. I realize how fortunate I am and am so thankful that things worked out for my family and me.

Change all around

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We are experiencing some major changes in the Riddle family this summer. Here are some highlights:

Me
I started my new job as Director of Development at City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley. If I hit the lights right, it only takes me 4 minutes to get to work! With yesterday and today as agency holidays, it was a short yet awesome first week. I work with a bunch of rock stars. Seriously, there is so much talent on this team and I’m privileged to be a part of it. On day 2 we had a staff retreat to kick off FY14 and it was amazing. Currently I’m reading a ton to get myself caught up on culture, history, impact, etc. Everyone has been extremely welcoming and helpful, providing a lot of explanations and helping me decode the gazillion acronyms (side note: I can’t speak to the corporate world because I decided pretty quickly it wasn’t for me, but I’ve come to the conclusion that nonprofits LOVE acronyms. And not just a few of them – a lot of them).

Ryan
My husband is also about to experience some professional change. He isn’t leaving Box, but come 7/15/13 he’s starting as their first Technical Productivity Manager. I’m so excited for him and this new role!

Nolan
With my new job closer to home, Nolan is getting ready to start at a new daycare later this month. Today, he and I went for a 3 hour enrollment visit to meet his classmates and new teachers. I’m so glad he is social because we walked in and he went straight to the group of kids, picked up a toy, and sat down to play. It’s pretty different than the home daycare set up he is accustomed to, and he’ll be the youngest in his class, but I got a good feeling for it today and think he’ll end up loving it there too.

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Sitting like a big boy at snack time

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Taking part in story time

In-Laws
In the last month, my in-laws have moved to the Bay Area (all of them – mother, father, sister, and soon to be brother-in-law) meaning that we now have family within 15 minutes of us! When we moved to the Bay Area 6 years ago that was the thing I was going to miss most – being near family. Turns out if you have a kid, they will come ;)Almost everyone has jobs and we are so excited that Nolan gets to grow up with family nearby!

Our Christmas letter is going to have a lot of content this year!

An incredible ride

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Here we are. The end of an era. My last day of work. I’ve had 2 full months to prepare for my departure from ACS, but the amount of time has almost made it harder. It’s like pulling a band aid off – if you do it slowly, you think it might hurt less but it actually ends up drawing out the pain. This last week I’ve been far more anxious than I thought I would be. Waking up a full hour before my alarm for the last week, trouble emptying my head at night, a twisty stomach, and a sudden outbreak of canker sores (I swear I haven’t touched any nuts or chocolate in the last 2 weeks!) are physical reactions I never thought I’d have.

Yesterday was the day I was dreading most. Saying goodbye to my boss. We both agreed that our exit lunch was strange and that neither of us knew how to have closure on our 5+ year relationship. We even had lunch at the same restaurant where 5 years earlier he asked me to apply for the director role. It didn’t help. We have been each other’s workplace support systems. We’ve been each other’s rock through years of ups and downs. How do you find closure on that? When he left yesterday, it was the last time I would see him in the office as his employee. There were tears. We hugged. He has been so much more than a supervisor to me: he’s been my mentor, role model, and friend. Aside from supervisor, those roles he has played won’t change, but it will be a transition that will take some getting used to.

ACS is really where I grew up. I came to this organization as a fresh 22 year old, newlywed, recent college grad, and pretty new to the real world. I leave a 28 year old, mother, homeowner, experienced professional, with a career. Thanks for everything, ACS. It has been an incredible ride.

Difficult decision, exciting news

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I haven’t posted in a while because a lot of what I have been wanting to write about has been top secret. I tried to steer clear of my blog for fear of accidentally letting something slip. However, now that the decision has been made and the appropriate people have been informed, I can officially announce my news: I have accepted the position of Director of Development at a national organization’s Silicon Valley site.

It was an extremely difficult decision. For the most part, I have really enjoyed working at my current organization. After being there 5.5 years, I know it inside and out. I know the key players and have built solid relationships with donors, funders, and board members. I like my co-workers and have a great boss. And, there are no surprises – meaning that I know what the challenges, flaws, and areas for improvement are. I love the mission of the organization and know that we do good work in the community. So why would I leave?

A lot of factors played into my acceptance of this offer. I am ready for a new challenge. I want to work in the community in which I live. I am tired of commuting and do not want my son to have to spend so much time in the car each day on the way to and from daycare. I have a vision for my career and in order to get to where I want to be, it is time for me to broaden my experience, work in a different environment, and fundraise for a bigger budget. Contrary to what people may think, it was not really about a higher salary or better benefits…though that didn’t hurt.

I was made aware of the opening by my mentor, who encouraged me to take a look at it because she thought it was an organization I might be interested in. She was right. I submitted my résumé and didn’t hear anything for over a month. I assumed they weren’t interested and didn’t sweat it because I had a job. I was surprised when they finally did contact me because I had applied so long ago. It was an intense process…8 interviews (3 in-person, 5 by phone), each lasting 30-90 minutes, with people from the San Jose/Silicon Valley office, as well as in Boston, Seattle, and Los Angeles. I did as much interviewing of them as they did of me. I wanted to make sure this was 1) the right fit, 2) an organization I could be passionate about, 3) a fiscally responsible organization, and 4) the best decision for me at this point in my career and life.

A few thoughts about my new position. Working with a national organization has a lot of perks, career advancement and the occasional trip to the Boston headquarters, being a couple. While my title is Director of Development, specifically I’ll be handling individual giving, major gifts, events, and strategy. There is no real individual giving program established, so my big task (which is a little scary, but exciting) is to get one going. My new office is down the street from where I live. If I wanted to, I could walk. Even if my office hours are slightly longer than what I am accustomed to, the time I will save in my commute is HUGE.

I’m a little torn about my son’s daycare situation. I know we will find something closer to home and that it’ll be great, but we (all three of us) love his current provider. He has been there since he was 2.5 months old. They are practically his second family. We’ll keep him where he is until we find new arrangements.

I was able to negotiate a start date of July 1 so that I can finish out the fiscal year at my current job. We have a big fundraising event in 2 weeks and I want to do what I can to get things organized and document a lot of the things I do that have lived in my head for 5 years.

This experience, of informing and getting ready to leave my current organization, has been far more emotional than I expected it to be. I am lucky and blessed to be in this situation. Not everyone can say they genuinely like their job, the mission, and the people they work with and are moving on mainly because of a bigger opportunity/career advancement. I couldn’t have asked for a better starting point to my career and look forward to this next chapter.

Mentorship

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I never really thought about mentorship until 2008 when I was asked to participate as a mentor in our church’s mentor program. They pair up middle school confirmation students with adults in the congregation for a year. I had a great time and the next thing I knew, Ryan and I were coordinating the mentor program (note: for the record, I have a hard time saying no). Seriously though, it was a great experience and the last year we led it (BC – before child) we were even able to revamp it so that the mentors and mentees had a more enjoyable experience.

Professionally, I’ve been fortunate to have had several mentors. I think back to my boss at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. I learned so much from him – not necessarily about my job, but how to be a stand up person and be a leader.

Similarly, my current boss has served as my mentor for the last 5 years. He has taught me about building relationships, managing a team, strategic planning, being fiscally responsible, and how important it is to have fun at work with the people you work with.

I’ve also had a formal mentor through the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Silicon Valley Chapter’s Mentorship Program. Talking to someone in my field, in the same geographic region has been a godsend. Sometimes you need to vent. Sometimes you need to bounce ideas off of them. And sometimes, you need advice. I was so lucky to formally have her as my mentor and am fortunate that she’s continued to interact with me in that capacity.

Last September, I started a program offered through the Chamber of Commerce calledLeadership Palo Alto. I will admit, going into it, I was a little skeptical about what I would get out of it and nervous about the time commitment – 10 sessions from September to June, each lasting from 8am to 6pm. It has far exceeded my expectations. One topic that has come up time and time again has been mentorship: why it’s important, what to look for in a mentor, and how to really utilize a mentor to grow as a leader. Unlike some of my peers in the program, I have been really lucky to have had multiple mentors in my life. So, instead of focusing on who I might ask to become MY mentor, I thought, “I wonder if someone would ever want ME to be THEIR mentor?”

Perhaps it was a sign that my mentor through AFP was now running the Mentorship Program for the Silicon Valley chapter and contacted me about participating – as a mentor this time around. I had concerns and worries – I’m young! Aren’t I still too inexperienced to be someone else’s mentor?!? She gave me the boost of confidence I needed and made me look back at all that I had accomplished in the last 5.5 years I have been in the Development field. I suppose one benefit of working at a small organization is that you learn how to do everything…and learn it as quickly as you possibly can because as soon as you’re done with one thing, it is on to the next.

I recently started my journey as a mentor and am working with a fabulous mentee who is fairly new to the field. Just in our first meeting as I heard about some of the struggles she is facing, it occurred to me how much I’ve grown. And how excited I am to be on the other side of it all.

Mission driven vs. funding driven decision making

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I recently had my first experience negotiating a contract with a county. It didn’t go so well. Coming from a small organization, we thought getting a contract would be a long shot but figured, you never know. Imagine my shock when I received word that we had received the grant and would be going into contract negotiations.

It was a process like no other I had experienced. In my experience with grant proposals, you write what you do or are proposing to do and then if the funder likes what you have presented, they fund you or not (this is a dumbed down, very basic synopsis of a grant maker’s process…I know there’s a lot more to it, but this is the gist of it). I won’t get into the specific details of this process, but let’s just say that from the minute we sat down, they fired off questions at us. They liked the idea of what we were proposing – but they wanted us to change substantial parts of our proposal and had certain expectations that we realistically would not be able to meet. After a lot of discussion on our end, we formally withdrew from negotiations.

Not every organization and leadership team would have made that decision. Especially not in these cash strapped, financially strained times. However, I think situations and decisions like this should ALWAYS go back to the mission of the organization. We looked at our mission and realized the changes they were asking us to make would be a stretch and not directly tie back to our mission. We looked at our strategic plan and saw that if we accepted one of their requests, we would be completely ignoring a very clear direction laid out in our long range plan. We looked at staff time and resources. We ultimately did what was best for the organization and all those involved.

Sometimes, saying no, IS the best thing to do. Allowing funding to drive programmatic decisions can become a dangerous path to go down. What happens when that funding cycle ends? Or if, like a lot of government funding, it dries up? How will you sustain that program and keep it going?

If you want to read more about keeping an organization’s mission at the heart of decision making, I highly recommend Peter Brinckerhoff‘s book, “Mission-Based Management: Leading Your Not-For-Profit in the 21st Century.”

The way we think about charity

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Today I watched Dan Pallotta’s TED Talk from earlier this month. If you haven’t seen it yet, take 18 minutes to watch it. It’s called “The Way We Think About Charity Is Dead.”

I’m not sure if I agree wholeheartedly with all of the points he made (for instance, I get his point about nonprofit salaries but also don’t think organizations should go overboard in how much they are paying staff – yes, we work just as hard as those working at for-profit companies, but that doesn’t mean CEOs or Executive Directors of successful organizations should be making exorbitant salaries). However, for the most part, his message is something that people, particularly foundation/corporate funders and individual donors, need to hear. And that message is that organizations need to be encouraged to spend money on overhead. Allowing nonprofits to spend money on overhead provides for innovation, more money to be raised, happier employees, higher levels of productivity, and most importantly, social change on a larger level.

The saying “you have to spend money to raise money” is true. I often feel like if I had more resources at my disposal to use better tools or hire more staff, so much more money could be raised, and by default, so many more people in the community served. This whole concept of keeping overhead (management, fundraising, and operational expenses) at 25% or below (I actually feel the expectation is to keep it far below that, even if 25% is the “standard”) is crazy. I hope people like Dan Pallotta continue to spread this message and that those in the grant making/world of philanthropy start listening.

Work related research

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As the Development & Marketing Director, one of my responsibilities is keeping our organization’s website updated. There are several issues I have with said website. 1. Our website design is terrible from both a user and admin standpoint. 2. Our website has so much info on it, that it’s hard to know where to go to find what you’re looking for. 3. We have Macromedia Dreamweaver to update it…yes, Macromedia Dreamweaver. Working with software that is 8 years old is…a test of patience. 

I finally got fed up with accepting that “this is the way it is and has to be” and have decided that I’m going to look into other options for our website. Something easier to navigate. Something more user friendly. Something simpler to update. I knew that WordPress did blogs, but didn’t really realize people used WordPress as their main website. Our organization actually has a fairly successful WordPress blog that we keep up. But, I decided I need to try to create my own WordPress account to see if I could figure out how one would go about making their WordPress site into their main website. Sure, I could have used our agency’s WordPress account, but risk accidentally screwing something up? Ha! I think not.

Since having a baby last May, my life as been all about the work-life balance. What better topic to have a blog about? This way I can write about work, family, and my ridiculously cute kid.

If anyone has any advice for me on the pros/cons/hows of using WordPress to deploy an organization’s website, please let me know. I’d love to pick your brain.